In the face of students' movement, the authorities of Jahangirnagar University (JU) on 30 December 2024 announced a roadmap for election of Jahangirnagar University Central Students’ Union (JUCSU).
According to the roadmap, the election schedule was supposed to be announced on 1 February.
However, the authorities could not announce the schedule due to the disagreement in views of the student organisations.
Later, the university authorities said that the elections will be held in the third week of May and the schedule will be announced 21 days before the election on 30 April. However, the students are doubtful about the schedule being announced on time.
Students say, as per the latest statement of the university authorities there’s only 10 days left for the schedule announcement.
However, the constitution of JUCSU has not been finalised yet. Besides, the authorities also did not disclose the name of the attackers of July movement against whom they have filed cases or have taken steps from the university.
So, confusion has been created regarding the election schedule being announced within 30 April.
The authorities, however, have taken various initiatives such as forming the election commission, publishing the voter list and forming the environment council (formed to oversee the electoral atmosphere on the campus). There have been view-exchange sessions in different residential halls as well.
The authorities have also created quite a few proposals for the reform of the constitution based on opinions of various stakeholders. And, letters have been sent to different student organisations seeking their opinions on these proposals. The last date of sending their opinions was set on 17 April.
JUCSU was established in 1972 and the first election was held in the same year. The last JUCSU election was held back in 1992. Following the fall of Awami League government in the face of student-people's mass uprising, students of the university carried out various programmes including human chain, protest procession and hunger strike on the campus demanding JUCSU election.
In this context, the university authorities then announced the JUCSU election roadmap on 30 December last year.
Students suspicious, authorities hopeful
Central senior joint convener for Gonotantrik Chhatra Sangsad and a student of Jahangirnagar University, Tawhid Siam told Prothom Alo that the authorities could not announce the schedule on time due to disapproval from a certain student organisation after announcing the roadmap.
They hope that the election would be held within the date set by the administration.
However, the administration needs to quickly implement the tasks that are supposed to be completed before that.
They don’t want the JUCSU election to be postponed on any more excuses, he added.
Convenor of ‘Gano-Obbhuththan Rokkha Andolan’, which is active on campus, Abdur Rashid said, “The university administration had promised that all the necessary preparations including carrying out reforms of the constitution and updating the voter list would be completed in time. The exact date of schedule was supposed to be announced within 10 April. But unfortunately, there has been no announcement from the authorities yet. The outcome would not be good if the schedule announcement or the elections are tried to be postponed again with any excuse.”
In this regard, member secretary of the election commission formed for JUCSU election and proctor of the university, Rashidul Alam told Prothom Alo recently that after receiving stakeholders’ opinions on the proposal to reform the constitution, a final draft will be drawn through discussion on 20 April. The draft will be sent to the vice-president and then presented at the syndicate. He said he is hopeful about announcing the schedule with the previously fixed time.
Mentioning that the university administration did not announce any specific date for the election, election commissioner Md Moniruzzaman said, “The administration has mentioned a timeframe saying that the election will be held in the third week of May. The administration has stated this, not the election commission. Besides, after carrying out reforms in the constitution it would be sent to us. We’ll have a discussion on that and the administration would have to set a date. Then we’ll be able to announce the schedule and publish that.”
Disagreement among student organisations
There were disagreements among the student organisations right from the start of the roadmap being announced.
Quite a few organisations including the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, Gono Obbhuththan Rokkha Andolan, Chhatra Shibir, Chhatra Union (a faction), Adhipatya Birodhi Mancha, and Chhatra Odhikar Parishad have been demanding elections according to the roadmap.
On the other hand, Chhatra Dal, Chhatra Union (a faction) and Samajtantrik Chhatra Front demanded election after carrying out reforms in some matters. The university authorities have already taken initiatives for reforms in quite a few matters including advancing the work of carrying out reforms in JUCSU constitution. However, the disagreement among the student organisations has not been cleared yet.
Member secretary of Chhatra Dal’s Jahangirnagar University unit, Wasim Ahmed Anik believes logical reforms are needed for a good and inclusive election. He told Prothom Alo, “For that to happen, there needs to be dialogues with all the stakeholders which we did not notice.”
General secretary for a faction of JU Chhatra Union unit, Riddha Anindya Ganguly said that they appreciate that the administration is working to hold the elections. However at the same time, the collaborators of Awami League must be removed from the administration and the investigation of all the corruption from the last 15 years must also be taken forward. Apart from JUCSU elections, initiatives must be taken to hold the senate, syndicate and registered graduate elections as well.
Speaking on the overall situation, vice-chancellor of Jahangirnagar University, Mohammad Kamrul Ahsan told Prothom Alo, “Everything is progressing smoothly for the JUCSU elections. If everyone reaches an agreement, we will be able to announce the schedule at the scheduled time.”